About

I started carrying my camera because of the great shots that got away, the teenage boys, black and white, sharing a can of soda after school, or the Jewish religious girls’ schools and Muslim girls sharing a park on a spring day.

Life in Jerusalem is not what you see in the media. In RJS photo blog, we want to share with you the real Jerusalem, photos of daily life.

A beautiful little religious boy with long blond side-curls drinks from a water fountain, while two Muslim taxi drivers eat their lunch and begin bowing for their afternoon prayers a few meters away in a public park.

Every hospital waiting room is full of anxious relatives and friends, Jews and Arabs sitting, pacing, and waiting impatiently; and the patients, lying next to each other in crowded hospital rooms, again Jew and Arab treated together.

Arab women and girls are able to walk and shop alone in most areas of the city. Scenes like these somehow do not get into the press. Perhaps bad news sells, but the real Jerusalem streets are not just about violence.

Thoroughly enjoy this blog. Your street views fill my amagination once again. Thanks to you my pain due to distance and time is more tolerable. I was there in 6/08. It was to be a trip of a life time. In stead a passion started with clear intent to get back there asap. My prayers and concerns are with your countries welfare. Most of America is for you minus our leadership. Stay your course Israel. You continue to stand strong where other countries cower. Shalom Israel.

Sharon-
You really wonderfully capture what’s going on here in Jerusalem. I love what you’ve done!
I’ve included your link in my weekly Israel journal email.
One question: what kind of camera do you have? Your photos are fantastic!
Keep it up!
All the best-
Janet

Hi & Shana Tova from Melbourne, Australia.
I was sent your blog by our president and have just featured it on our facebook page Zionist Council of Victoria and also on our twitter ZCV_PR.
Sure our fans & followers will enjoy it as much as I have!
Chatima Tova.
Kind regards,
Elly Shalev

Did you ever read the M. Sasek books when you were a kid? “This is New York,” “This is Paris,” etc. I loved them. Your blog is “This is Jerusalem” for our time – great photos and the same whimsical tone. It’s lovely.

Posts are at least once a week.. during holiday seasons more often and they can be obtained from the website.
There is an email list for new posts, these emails often contain the sarcsam and comments which we try to avoid in blog posts.

Hi there…My friend has sent me your posts on several ocassions. I’ve really enjoyed them and now I’m very happy that I’ll be able to receive them whenever you send them out. I have many friends that I know will appreciate them, as well.
Thanks for doing this…Hannah (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada)

You know, the pen is mightier than the sword and the internet gives the pen great power. So, this blog has a great future. Perhaps you’d like to run for the Knesset? Honest and positive people are so much needed these days.

Keep seeing and recording the amazing sights of our beloved city. Every Jewish soul is happy and hungry for the beauty in Yerushalayim.

What a beautiful blog! What a wonderful thing you are doing! I am an American with Jewish ancestry who never got to visit the country I love and consider my true home, though my sandals have never touch it’s blessed soil. I am enjoying walking through it’s streets virtually by your blog! Shalom!

This is an impressive blog.. a picture is worth a thousand words right? I am Roni with Giyus.org and I just began compiling an Israel in Photos page (http://bit.ly/LG4PIV). I’ve included a picture of yours and a link back to your wonderful blog.. It would be great if you could link to the photo page as well – it will help us both reach out with beautiful photos of Israel to those looking for such information. Keep up the good work.

I find it creepy, not beautiful, to have Arab patients and their families in the hospital with me . . . and even scarier when some of the staff are Arab.
Do all staff members go through security, all the time? Or do they get to skip it, because they are familiar?
In Merkaz Harav, I think the perpetrator worked in the yeshiva’s kitchen.

So nice to meet you! Recently am feeling Israel coming closer to our life in Japan, so I was happy to find your blog through the Parnasa woman`s blog site. I recently added my blog there too, its called Challah and Cherry Blossoms. Please visit us in Japan when you have a chance! Blessings and Shalom!

SHALOM! Thank you for the colorful and informative advertisment. My family and I enjoyed everything about last years festival! I am very interested in knowing how one could be a participant in this years festival 2017 as a vendor or performer. There are artists of handcrafts, culinary,song, dance and music at the quality,culture and professionalism this annual festival is known for! Please contact. Thank you.

I started my day reading the book of Zechariah “Old men and old women…
shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.
The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.” I HAD to know what it might look like. Your photos are lovely. Thanks for this.